NICK ACTED STRANGE FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS.

At least, it seemed strange in the eyes of Exflibberaguil. There were frequent periods of disappearance, with her coming back only to eat and sleep. She only spoke when it was an absolute necessity, and when she did, it came in short, abrupt phrases. Her sudden cold demeanor confused Exflibberaguil, but in no way troubled him. He supposed it must be one of these strange phases of metamorphosis all Sodriew go through at one time or another.

It was the sixth day they had spent in the park, or so Exflibberaguil believed. He experienced a strong memory wipe two days ago…or was it earlier? Time was always a little confusing after memory wipes, especially with the more powerful ones. He couldn’t imagine why he’d need such a memory wipe. Box gave no clues.

Most memory wipes only had a magnitude of three or rarely four. These were usually a temporary fix, as the memory would often reoccur in a few days’ time. But he daren’t go past five, because such a memory wipe could permanently damage his hippocampus. Exflibberaguil would gladly cut off part of his brain to forget certain, rather painful memories but if something went wrong during such an operation, he could easily forget how to walk or talk.

However, the memory wipe he had recently experienced had a magnitude of eight. How could he have risked damaging his brain like that? What sort of memory caused him to act so rashly? And why did his head hurt so much? Of course, Exflibberaguil knew these questions were best left unanswered. Questions proved that the wipe had worked.

Once, he had wondered if he had just made a mistake and entered the wrong setting. But Exflibberaguil immediately dismissed the ridiculous idea. How could he have ever made a mistake? Absurd!

It’s not egotistic, Exflibberaguil thought, it’s a fact! He’d often say this aloud as well, with great satisfaction.

Today, on the morning of the sixth day, Exflibberaguil had woken up early, so that he’d be able to catch Nick and solve a few mysteries. But evidently, he did not wake early enough because Nick had already left to who-knows-where. Exflibberaguil sighed, feeling irritated from rising early for no purpose. His ferret had also already abandoned him, though this was no great surprise. Exflibberaguil had long concluded that ferrets were strange creatures. Understanding their intentions would be a pointless effort.

Exflibberaguil soon realized that waking early was not the only thing that bothered him. With some alarm, he realized he was bored, with only Box for company. This feeling of boredom was alien to him. But as he ate breakfast (which consisted of cookies and dry cereal), he felt with more conviction that it really was boredom that was affecting him.

Exflibberaguil looked longingly at the door, but his pride prevented him from going out. He was afraid of bumping into Nick outside. She’d undoubtfully ask why he was playing outside, instead of planning and plotting their next step. There were, of course, a few plausible excuses that Exflibberaguil could say, but excuses were only for the lowly and stupid who couldn’t think of a clever loophole. Exflibberaguil refused to allow himself to sink to such a class. He also refused to admit that he had no plan whatsoever, and really was clueless about this whole planet-saving thing.

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“I do have a plan!” Exflibberaguil yelled to the empty air as if he were arguing with Nick. “And maybe you should have stopped staying outside so long. Not that you could help with planning, of course, because your brain isn’t sophisticated enough. But at least you could have…could have…”

“Pretended to work?” Box provided.

“Yes! That!” And Exflibberaguil lay back down on the bed with satisfaction.

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NICK TREKKED THROUGH THE WOODS.

The sky was still dark. She liked it that way. The world felt more peaceful in the night.

For the past few days, she had been escaping from the suffocating trailer early in the morning and returning for only a few hours of sleep. The rest of her sleep she recovered on the forest floor in a sleeping bag she had bought with the counterfeit money.

There was also a practical reason for getting up at night. She needed to practice escaping and develop a better night vision. No matter what, she would always be at a disadvantage against Exflibberaguil. She could only improve on what she had. Involuntarily, she rubbed her wrists where the handcuffs had once been.

It was dangerous to keep around Exflibberaguil, but even more dangerous to leave. With his technology, Nick felt sure that she could be found no matter where she hid or ran. Nick knew that sneaking outside every night was just as dangerous and suspicious, but having to act normal around Exflibberaguil was something she just didn’t have the strength to do. It was difficult to see Exflibberaguil the way he acted now. All Nick could imagine was the mad beast that had possessed his body.

It felt as if Nick had become kidnapped. But the most frightening part was that the kidnapper was not aware of his actions. That was what made him dangerous.

Nick wondered briefly if Exflibberaguil was ever confused about her strange actions. But then she consoled herself by reminding herself that Exflibberaguil was egotistic and would see her acting just like any other idiotic Sodriew. But on some days, Nick fretted that Box may utter the dreaded trigger word, and Exflibberaguil’s memory would return. Nick wouldn’t even have time to run.

Something soft and furry rubbed against her leg.

“Ah, it’s you.”

Lately, Exflibberaguil’s ferret had also been sticking around with her. Perhaps it, too, was frightened of Exflibberaguil. Exflibberaguil couldn’t have taken much care of it through the years. He wasn’t the sort of person—alien—that would care for anything or anyone other than himself.

The ferret rubbed Nick’s leg again with its warm body as if saying, Yes, it’s me. What a rude greeting, for such a dignified animal as me. Then, with a huff, it curled up in a ball, next to Nick’s foot. But I will forgive you this once, as you have not been as irritating as my master.

Nick smiled. Talking to animals didn’t seem such a bad thing. It lifted her headache. Recently these headaches have been torturing her daily. With the headaches came stresses and a strange feeling of weight. It seemed only when she was outside early in the morning that the headache lightened.

Nick spread her sleeping bag out and soon began dreaming.